Jason Schwartzman Reveals How He Wrote and Performed the Theme Song for Prime Video’s ‘Kevin’

Prime Video’s animated series ‘Kevin’ is now streaming, and fans will immediately recognize Jason Schwartzman’s voice as the show’s namesake cat. But Schwartzman also lends his singing voice to the theme song at the start of every episode.

The series follows Kevin, a cat who leaves his human owners when they decide to break up. Rather than endure the fallout of his family’s destruction, Kevin chooses to stay at a local shelter and decide whether he even wants to live with humans again. The theme song reflects Kevin’s journey, with Schwartzman singing, “I’m coming home.”

Writing the Theme Song: A Surprising Challenge

Despite his experience as a songwriter and musician, Schwartzman found crafting the lyrics for a 2026 TV theme song unexpectedly difficult. He explained to TheWrap that many shows today opt for instrumental openings, but he embraced the opportunity to create a vocal theme.

“Any music is — I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever you want. I love music,” Schwartzman said. “But yes, I didn’t realize until we really started writing it that, Oh, it’s meant to have lyrics and Oh, I’m going to be singing it! Which is unusual, I feel like, for a show to have a song from the point of view of the character, and sing it, but it was really fun.”

Schwartzman also realized the song couldn’t be a full-length track. “You got to really cut to the chase, but I loved it,” he said. “I hope that people like it, and that we tried to capture — have like enough that the song gives you momentum going into the show. So, like, it lifts you up, it pumps you up, and then is a good like (makes whoosh noise) going into it.”

Navigating Adult Animation’s Unique Challenges

‘Kevin’ is an adult animation series, and one of its running gags revolves around Kevin’s distended butthole. Schwartzman admitted he was initially hesitant about recording lines tied to this joke, given his background in projects aimed at younger audiences.

“I think that it’s true that, by and large, most things that one does that are animated typically skew towards a younger group of people,” he said. “So it sort of feels so wrong to be in a booth, in a microphone saying such things, because you sort of have had it in your system that you know, certain things are not going to come out of your mouth during this recording session.”

“And if they are, usually it’s like a joke. You’re like, ‘Hey, what if my character said this terrible thing and used this language?’ and it’s ‘Haha, silly.’ But to be able to do it as the job, it’s almost counterintuitive, but that’s what was so fun about it.”

The series is now available to stream on Prime Video.